


Cold Hard Ground

by crna_macka



Category: The 100 (TV)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-03
Updated: 2015-04-03
Packaged: 2018-03-21 01:48:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 580
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3672963
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/crna_macka/pseuds/crna_macka
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Abby can deal with Clarke’s absence later; Raven is here, in front of her, now.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Cold Hard Ground

**Author's Note:**

> Work order from tumblr user iskeirim: "Abby sees Raven for the first time on earth? After Abby finds out that Clarke's not there and realizes that Raven was shot, is paralyzed and pretty much dying?"
> 
> Season 2 x Episode 1. Title from The Dead Milkmen.

The boys lead them to the drop ship, and every step of the way, Abby’s heart wants to beat out of her chest. They can’t walk fast enough, her lungs fill and empty, her shoulders feel like they might snap with the tension.

They pass the bodies mangled by war. Some, children of the Ark. Some, strangers covered in strange clothes and warpaint. Abby recognizes each of the delinquents’ faces from her monitor, from their vaccinations, from quarantines and checkups. But none of them are Clarke.

There are ashen remains filling the ring around the drop ship. Black, silvery in the midday light. The kids they rescued weren’t embellishing the siege at all. Inside the fortifications, nothing moves.

There’s still hope, though. There’s still the drop ship, with its scrap-cloth covering. She bursts through it like a live wire.

And there’s a boy, mangled, one of theirs. Bloody and beaten, with dead eyes. Croaks out: “Help her.”

Abby is at Raven’s side in an instant, crouched close to make sure she’s breathing, there’s a pulse. “Raven.” Abby’s muscles throb with the strain of holding herself in. “Raven, honey, it’s Abby.”

She hasn’t seen the young woman in what feels like _years_ , and her hope surges when Raven’s eyes flicker open. Raven’s voice rasps with pain and ill-use. “Clarke’s not here.”

Abby’s heart skips a beat and her breath catches. She’s only dimly aware that Raven continues. She has to stay calm. She steadies herself, one hand firm and gentle on Raven’s thigh. Would her first question really have been about Clarke? As a medical professional faced with this magnitude of injury, could she really have been that selfish?

"What happened to you?" she asks. She can deal with Clarke’s absence later; Raven is here, in front of her, now.

Raven, who has to make an effort to open her eyes again, who is so clearly struggling to move.

It’s an agonizing moment before Raven answers. “I got shot.”

Abby can’t help it - she shifts closer again. Hand on Raven’s elbow, hand on her shoulder. What she knows is that Raven is a fighter, and Raven is barely there.

"I need a stretcher," Abby says, not taking her eyes off Raven. She ignores the men shifting behind her and focuses solely on Raven’s body, the way she responds to Abby’s careful ministrations.

"Raven," Abby says, lowering her voice, cupping Raven’s clammy cheek and jaw, creating a thread between just the two of them. "Listen to me. Can you move?"

Raven’s face is pinched. “No.”

"Where were you shot?"

The woman licks her lips. Barely. “Back.”

Abby can feel her stomach drop as her clinical mind does the assessment, the projections.

She won’t go any farther with the Arkers’ search team today. She won’t go anywhere but right back to Jackson and Medical.

In a daze, she directs the careful transfer of Raven’s broken body from the cold metal of the drop ship floor - tacky with blood now - to the stretcher. She gives strict orders with a clenched jaw: Raven needs to be treated with the utmost care. If this bullet’s in her spine, if she starts bleeding again on the way back to camp, they’ve lost their best mechanic.

"It’s a miracle she’s still alive," she tells one of the boys they’ve rescued. She means it.

She’s never meant anything more. It’s going to be a miracle if Raven survives.

And if - if anything’s happened to Clarke - Raven _has_ to survive.


End file.
